Statement on the comments by the Member for Newtown
Published 08 February 2024
I represent the electorate of Vaucluse, which has one of the largest Jewish populations in the State. About 20 per cent of my constituents are of Jewish faith. I speak on a matter that is of utmost important to them. It is something that has been of utmost importance over millennia, actually, and that is not walking past antisemitism. So I speak on their behalf tonight when I say that the standard that you walk past is the standard that you accept.
When I heard, in a video in the news media, the member for Newtown talking at a Palestine Justice Movement forum in Bankstown about Jews and their "tentacles", and when I heard her suggestions that the Jewish community only seeks to help others because they have an ulterior motive, I could not walk past, because this is not a standard that anyone should accept. The comments made by member for Newtown are offensive. They have caused hurt and they stoke the fires of division within our community. They are well below the standard that the public expects of a member in this place.
I talk about the Jewish community in my electorate and in Australia. We are stronger for the contributions that they make. We are stronger for the contributions that Jewish Australians make alongside people of all faiths and cultures, from all over the world. As I have said before, diversity is our strength. But the harmony of our great multicultural State is not a given, and it did not happen through sheer luck. That harmony is only kept strong by the respect that we show to one another. That mutual respect should never be selective. We cannot call out hate speech and racism when it is only directed at one group or another. We must call it out whenever it happens. We must work consistently to preserve social cohesion.
Since the 7 October attacks, we have seen a rise in antisemitism in Australia and around the world. It is unacceptable that Jewish Australians feel concern for their safety in a way that they have not in decades. All of us need to condemn antisemitism when it occurs, without qualification and without drawing any equivalency—just as we should for any other hate-based speech, just as we should for any anti-Islamic sentiment. We can agree or disagree on foreign policy. We can disagree with the actions of foreign governments. We can protest peacefully. We can, and we should, acknowledge and sympathise with those in our community whose hearts are breaking for the extraordinary loss of civilian life in Gaza. We can, and we should, also share the horror for the attacks by Hamas on 7 October and feel continuing distress for the hostages and their families. This is a natural human response.
But Ms Leong's comments showed a lack of empathy. They were devoid of any respect for a community that feels under siege in Sydney. As the President of the Jewish Board of Deputies, David Ossip, said, "She has drawn upon one of the oldest and darkest antisemitic tropes by suggesting that there is a sinister or nefarious conspiracy associated with Jews undertaking the most normal of everyday activities—interacting with other Australians." He went on to say, "For the benefit of Leong, Jews do not have tentacles. We are ordinary human beings who have as much right as any other group to go about our daily lives without a dark pall being cast over us. Her comments would not have been out of place in Nazi propaganda and need to be condemned by all decent people." I provide a local example from my electorate. A woman I bumped into yesterday told me that she was afraid. I asked her, "Why are you afraid?" She said, "Because I have a Jewish name on my shopfront." This is Australia in 2024, not 1944.
In the video the member for Newtown told the forum, "We need to call them out and expose them," referring to the Jewish lobby. Her words were "expose them"—in other words, call them out—so I am calling her out. We need to expose her conduct and hold her to account for her slurs, because there is no conspiracy here. There are no tentacles seeking to control. All there is at the moment is discrimination against the Jewish community. The member for Newtown's apology was not a genuine apology in the opinion of many, because it was dripping in propaganda; it was half-baked. I ask her to take the time to reflect on why it is that she can care for so many minority groups, and she does, and she can stand up for the rights of so many, and she does, but there is an absence of empathy when it comes to this group, the Jewish community? The member should apologise without qualification.